What is the ZoneHartford Project?

ZoneHartford is a project to update Hartford’s Zoning Regulations, which regulate development and land uses within the City. The new regulations will reflect the City’s current goals for encouraging economic development, enhancing mixed use neighborhoods, and increasing walkability and transit choice. While the rewrite is a citywide effort, the project will focus on Hartford’s transportation corridors and the surrounding areas, as these are the best locations to encourage new, walkable development in proximity to a variety of transit options. Additionally, these regulations will place a larger emphasis on building form rather than solely focusing on the separation of uses. This will help to ensure that the built form matches the community’s vision.

The current zoning regulations date to 1969, a time when the focus was on creating auto-oriented development and separation of uses was seen as the most critical concern. Since then, development strategies have shifted to also include pedestrian, bicycle, and transit priorities. Additionally, the nation has come to realize that having certain retail and commercial uses in proximity to residential uses is a smart growth strategy. Over the last 40 years, piecemeal changes have been made to address issues or concerns as they arose, but now a comprehensive update is needed to provide predictable development outcomes in our neighborhoods and to simplify our zoning code and development procedures.

Upcoming Events

Check back often for new events and thanks to everyone who participated at our last set of Community Meetings!

Participate!

Check out the Participate! page to find out all the opportunities throughout the project you have to get involved, check out zoning ideas, submit your own idea, and take surveys!